Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 4 Dec 1995
The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Daniel Bellet, a Paris local government officer, infected with the AIDS virus during a 1983 transfusion.
Ordering France to pay damages, it said Bellet had been deprived of his right of access to an appeals court in his legal campaign against the national blood bank for being administered an AIDS-tainted transfusion.
It awarded him $200,000 in damages and $10,000 to cover legal fees.
In July 1992, a special fund set up by the French government granted him $260,000 in HIV-infection compensation.
Meanwhile, Bellet had filed a suit against France's National Blood Transfusion Foundation (FNTS).
In 1992, a Paris court ordered the FNTS to pay Bellet $300,000 in damages, but the sentence was quashed by an appeals court the following year on grounds that Bellet had already received compensation from the government.
In January 1994 a higher appeals court confirmed the ruling.
Bellet died during the night of Nov. 22-23, at the age of 51.
Monday's decision was the fourth time the European Court of Human Rights had ruled against the French government in cases brought by hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS during a transfusion.
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